Pretoria - The SACP looks set to discuss the possibility of contesting the 2024 general election on its own following growing calls from certain sectors of Cosatu-affiliated unions.
In Gauteng in the past months, Cosatu was the only sector that came out publicly to support the move, while its national leaders shelved the plan for such talks to be part of the discussions at the national congress scheduled for September.
As the SACP congress takes place today (Wed) until Saturday, members are expected to revive the song “We want State Power”, popular during the last party’s 14th national congress five years ago at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg.
The SACP is gathering at the same venue for four days, and again its leaders have admitted to reviewing their relationship with the ANC In a statement the party said its “outgoing secretary general” Dr Blade Nzimande is expected to deliver a presentation titled “Strategic Perspectives and Tasks”, which would be part of the Central Committee political report to the congress.
The congress would, among other Central Committee reports, discuss the report and the State of the Organisation Report. These reports will cover the experiences of the SACP in the past five years and more on the questions of alliances and fronts.
In 2017, the party presented almost the same agenda to the media, including issues of factionalism with the governing party.
In addressing the media about the possibility of being independent in the future, Nzimande told the media that his party had given itself until December 2017, after the ANC national elective conference, to determine whether the ruling party was still fit to be the mother of its alliance partners, or whether to seek an alternative arrangement.
At the time, he said, his party was not sure whether the “ANC wants to unite itself or smash itself”.
“We do not want the ANC to elect a faction at its national elective conference. If we did it in the past, we are no longer prepared to do it,” Nzimande said.
During the same month in 2017, he maintained that the next six months would be an important barometer for his party to carefully study the political situation in the country and the ANC’s efforts to put a stop to state capture.
Five years later, factions in the ANC have intensified including within the highest decision-making body – the National Executive Committee. Some people within the NEC are openly aligning themselves with the Radical Economic Transformation grouping, while others align with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s CR22 grouping ahead of the ANC national elective conference in December.
Insiders have told Independent Media that hundreds of SACP delegates were likely to discuss the same topics for the next four days without a possibility of a decisive decision on the future of the party.
Other party members say the only change likely to happen is Nzimande stepping down and his first deputy Solly Mapaila taking the reins.
Ironically, the 15th national congress is organised under the theme “Together, Let’s Build a Powerful, Socialist Movement of the Workers and Poor”.
Some of the SACP members affiliated to Cosatu are likely again to try to force the party to discuss the issue of e-tolls in Gauteng and the rising food and fuel prices, including whether some of its top members such as Nzimande, who hold ministerial positions in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet, should continue to serve or withdraw.
Pretoria News